Insights - November/December 2017 - 9

RECOVERY - from page 7
Tom Williams, vice president of consumer products for
BNSF Railway, noted that planning for extreme weather-related
events extends far beyond hurricanes. The railway also develops
proactive measures to deal with ice storms, blizzards, mudslides
and rockslides.
From Harvey, BNSF "learned the importance of establishing
a central command center as far in advance as possible from
when a hurricane is anticipated to make landfall," Williams said.
While Houston's flooding was so dramatic that some called
it a 1,000-year storm, it was but one of several flooding events in
2017, following disruptions in the Midwest and elsewhere.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
"During these flooding events, we deployed our unmanned
aerial vehicles to evaluate the impact on the ground in places we
couldn't reach by ordinary measures," Williams said. "Deploying
UAVs allowed our operations teams to assess the situation and
pre-stage ties, ballast and other track supplies needed to repair
the track so trains could resume as soon as it was safe to do so."

"We made the call to bring in a SWAT
team of sorts, of corporate M&R
personnel and staff outside Houston
to help recover. It helped us set up our
recovery efforts quickly and get a head
start on addressing chassis that were
impacted by the flood."
- Jon Poelma, president, Consolidated Chassis Management
Puerto Rico's damage from Hurricane Maria presented a
particular challenge, due to the 1,000 miles of ocean separating
the island from the U.S. mainland.
"The supply chain was constrained at every point," Fulton
said, with mainland ports slowed by earlier storms. Puerto Rico
itself was crippled with infrastructure that was virtually destroyed
inland, sharply curtailing the ability to move goods inland from
the San Juan docks.
The most important lesson learned for the business community, Fulton said, was that contingency plans are inevitably
going to break down under great stress and resourcefulness will
be needed to adjust. The inevitability arises because an efficient
supply chain has little elasticity, or excess capacity, Fulton said.
"When everyone is competing for that little bit of excess capacity,
someone will lose out," she said.
For businesses, the most important issue in responding is
to have solid contracts and relationships with your commercial
partners, Fulton believes, since both can be key factors in the
flexibility needed during disasters.
Like others, Fulton underscored the importance of communication. She cited the example of a conference call during the
Maria recovery efforts that gathered as many people as possible

to discuss particular needs, such as
who had supplies and where they were
available or who had a generator that
could be better used by someone else.
Ron Joseph, chief operating officer
of Direct ChassisLink, Inc., identified
several steps.

Open Lines of
Communication
"Prepare in advance as much
Joseph
as possible and keep the lines of
communication open," he said, by using online information
portals for customers and automating equipment information
inquiries after the storms.
After Harvey, DCLI moved to do even more advance
communications and planning, which helped to cope with Irma's
wrath.
Recovery - continued on page 11

Demand for Aid Strong After Storms End
The American Logistics Aid Network provided daily updates on disaster relief from the time the hurricanes began
until nearly two months later, when the demand for food,
medicine and other relief shipments remained strong.
For example, on Oct. 18, there were nine requests to
move 222 pallets of food, water, baby food, wheelchairs,
generators, mosquito repellent, dog and cat food, and
numerous other products.
There also were warehouse space requests, for at
least 300 pallets of cleaning supplies, as well as an additional one for as much as 100,000 square feet of warehouse space.
Equipment also was needed, including reach trucks
and forklifts.

IANA provided multiple types of assistance
to the American Logistics Aid Network
IANA participated with the Federal Emergency
Management Agency and ALAN, as well as other
organizations, on status and update reports through
conference calls.

* Updates to members were provided through Intermodal
Connections and a web page on IANA's website to
provide updates and requests for need from ALAN and
the relief effort.

* Advised ALAN on how to connect with members who
could assist with their needs in the relief effort.

* Assisted ALAN and FEMA in establishing situational
awareness in affected areas.

* Provided ALAN with an opportunity to exhibit at

Intermodal EXPO, and promoted the establishment of
relationships with members and others for current and
future relief efforts.

November/December 2017 | Intermodal Insights

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Insights - November/December 2017